


Monster Mash

by The Chronicler (AgentFrostbite)



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: (Are they Tolkien fans because my sister and I are Tolkien fans?), (It's not horrible tho; I'm just being safe), (Perhaps but you can't prove anything), (rated for Warren's language), A ghost actually comes to get him, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, And Sean really can't help it, And neither of them knew about the other until they both showed up at the party, And no gym class involved, Body Positivity, Charles decides that Halloween is the perfect time to fix this, Erik Lehnsherr is So Done, Gen, Halloween trading game, Happy Halloween party!, Hauntober, Hot potato but with a skeleton instead of a ball, Jubilee is a costume master, Look all I'm saying is that Sean and Peter definitely had the same humor, Nina is a lovely kind soul, Nina is literally so precious and I will never get tired of saying it, Nina wants to make friends with everything, Peter dares the ghosts to come get him, Peter is lucky Lorna loves him because otherwise he WOULD be dead, Raven could be a little nicer to Erik and tell him where his kids are, She didn't tho, Spooky Week writing prompts, Team as Family, The X-Men are dorks, Warren and Kurt are both Tolkien fans, Warren doesn't do great with kids, Warren is (begrudgingly) a good babysitter, Wendy Maximoff is So Done, X-Men team - Freeform, but not in the way you expect, dadneto, happy endings all around, implied Moira MacTaggart/Charles Xavier, kids being dorks, probably shoulda put that tag in earlier but oh well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:01:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27222415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentFrostbite/pseuds/The%20Chronicler
Summary: Spooky Week at the X-Mansion, featuring our favorite chaos-causing X-Men team.(Written for the Tumblr Exclusives #Hauntober prompt list)
Relationships: Moira MacTaggert/Charles Xavier
Kudos: 13





	1. Monday: Horns (Being Comfortable in Your Own Skin)

**Author's Note:**

> Just a quick side note, I HC that Warren did not lose his beautiful feather wings. I haven't decided if he never lost it or if they grew back after Apoc's frankly traumatic "improvement."
> 
> This is compliant with another AU I am writing in conjunction with my friend, and it will be updated to a collection when we finish and post that story. It has NOTHING TO DO with my current First Class AU (but, y'know...feel free to check that out if you like...sibling bonding and people being happy and Erik and Charles Not Being Morons...if you're into that kinda thing...)
> 
> (Also also, I am uploading this uber fast to get it in on Monday, so if I forget to clarify something or screw something up, I am so, so sorry!)

The only thing Warren Worthington liked about Halloween was that he could scare the piss out of any of the other X-Men and get away scot free.

He was okay with the apple cider, he could live with decaying pumpkins around every corner, he didn't hate the autumnal decorations and the plastic bats and the cloth ghosts hanging off every banister and doorway. He could handle the changing weather, so long as the leaves didn't get stuck in his feathers, and the storms that the change of seasons brought were excellent for perfecting his split-second flight reaction times, no matter how much Raven bitched at him for flying during lightning storms. Yeah, he could handle Halloween almost perfectly fine.

The thing he really didn't like was the army of munchkins running around with their craft supplies and borrowed/stolen clothes, asking if he liked their costume because he happened to be the only thing close to an adult around whenever they caught him. And yeah, he could lie begrudgingly – not that the costumes were all horrible, he just didn't like dealing with kids and he really should've thought about that before joining the X-Men – and the kids almost always bought it, but that was when they were happy.

Jacob, whose last name Warren didn't actually know, was not happy. Mainly because he couldn't find anything to wear that went well with his horns. Fangs, yes. Horns, not so much. And it was apparently really bothering him, and for whatever awful reason, Charles Xavier put _him_ on the job of fixing it.

Like the man, who was a _telepath_ , couldn't tell just from Warren's body language that he was really uncomfortable around kids. He didn't even need the telepathy to know that Warren _didn't like_ dealing with kids, but he seemed to ignore that.

"Just talk to him," Charles coaxed.

Warren seriously didn't want to.

But he owed the Prof as much as he owed Kurt for pulling him out of that plane, so he cussed about it in his head a bit but said, "Fine, whatever."

Talking wasn't a problem. He could give a 'Chin up; you're a mutant and mutants are way more awesome than normal people' speech and walk away, no problems.

Jacob wasn't interested in a pep talk. He was interested in either crying or finding a good costume, and Warren really, seriously, did not want to deal with a crying kid. So, like an idiot, he offered to help Jacob pick out a costume all on his own. No backup. A spectacularly bad idea, but he'd done it anyway.

"Maybe a vampire?" Warren suggested.

"Vampires don't have horns," Jacob shot down.

"A firefighter?"

"Don't have the helmet. I already asked around."

"Dragon?"

"How would I even pull that off?! The costume party's _tonight_!"

Damn, the kid really had exhausted all avenues, hadn't he? Well, maybe Warren could call in Peter and Jubilee for emergency help; it wasn't too late, right? And wasn't Raven always trying to drill teamwork or relying on each other or some similar BS into them? So, time to call in the cavalry, he could throw in the towel but at least he'd tried-

"I just don't know!" the kid lamented, sinking onto a chair in Jacob's own room. "Maybe I should just skip it."

That emotion, Warren could understand. The loneliness, not fitting in, not liking how he looked. He had a whole month where he hid in his room, wishing he could tear his wings off his back. He empathized with that want to withdraw from the world; it gave him and Jacob something in common other than being mutants in a human-dominated world. He hated that desire to hide and all the feelings that fueled it, more than he hated anything else…including dealing with pepping kids up.

"You're not gonna skip it," Warren said.

"I don't have anything to go as!" Jacob replied desperately. "These don't work with anything!" He gestured angrily to his horns.

Warren looked around the room and spotted a fedora hanging on the back of the door. He nodded to it. "What about that?"

"My dad's hat?" Jacob asked curiously.

He paused and stood, crossing the room slowly, and taking it off the back of the door. He turned it over, looking at it from every angle, then walked over to the mirror. Slowly, he placed it on his head, then tilted his head to the sides. It did hide his horns. He tipped it off and looked at himself again. Warren was already putting pieces together for the outfit, running through his mind what costume might go well with that hat. He spied a pinstripe suit jacket in Jacob's closet at the same time Jacob did, and the idea hit both of them at the same time.

Jacob quickly changed into the suit, and he looked…dapper, with a slightly dangerous edge.

"I got a red handkerchief and a tie that you can borrow," Warren added quickly, getting a little excited over the success, and even more so over Jacob's bright smile.

Jacob was practically bouncing, and he trailed Warren all the way back to Warren's room, where they put the final touches on the costume.

* * *

"This is gonna look so killer," Warren said as Jacob spun in front of the mirror.

Jacob did, in fact, look killer, but how he looked wasn't nearly as important as the fact that he was comfortable in his own skin. Jacob put his thick New York accent to good use, and for a couple hours, he wasn't a mutant, he was a suave 1920s "businessman." Who just happened to know several 'guys' and tipped his hat and charmed everyone, and okay, maybe Warren didn't _tell_ Jacob, but Jacob was doing it all on his own. Besides, who really cared what Jacob was dressed up as? He was _happy_ with himself, happy with his horns, and worryingly, that made Warren happy, too.

It didn't make Raven quite as thrilled.

"A _mobster_ , Warren?" Jubilee asked.

"Hey, I didn't pick mobster; he's donned that persona all on his own," Warren defended. "Who am I to rain on the kid's Halloween? I _just_ got him happy again, so don't-"

"What Warren has done is a good thing," Charles placated as he rolled up. "We can worry about potential role models later. For now, good job, Warren."

The Professor gave him a hearty pat on the back, and Warren would probably die before he admitted how _nice_ it felt to have an adult, an authority figure, accept him. To cover whatever emotional response he might give, which would be mortifying and which he'd never live down, Warren huffed.

"Yeah, thanks."

But he had this sinking feeling that the Prof knew what he meant anyway.


	2. Tuesday: Ghost (Loud Echoes of the Past)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter being Peter, he obviously had to tempt the ghosts around the X-Mansion to show themselves by zipping around the property at night. He didn't actually, y'know...expect one to show up. Or be real. Or scream at him, and _wow_ maybe this wasn't a great idea.

It wasn't that Peter was going crazy. Well, he kinda already _was_ crazy, but he was crazy in the way that he did crazy things, not that he himself had _gone_ crazy and was seeing or hearing things that weren't actually there.

Except maybe he kinda was, because nothing else quite explained why he kept seeing someone wandering the grounds when he was on his nightly runs. Peter never got more than a second or two's – in his own perception of time – worth of a glance of the person, who he'd decided had red, curly hair and pale skin with freckles, who was just a bit shorter than him, and seemed to track Peter with his gaze. Of course, whenever Peter slowed down to get a better look, the guy disappeared, and if it'd happened once or twice or even three times, he'd have chalked it up to an overactive imagination – after all, he was doing _nightly_ runs during _Spooky Week_.

But it'd started a couple days into October – because Peter was dedicated to finding himself a bona fide ghost and there was no better way than running around at night, alone, in the spookiest month of the year – and the frequency with which the guy appeared increased as time went on. Peter used to catch a glimpse of him once every four or so days. Now, the guy appeared once a night, and sometimes more, although Peter admitted the second 'appearance' was always blurrier than the first and might actually have been his overactive imagination.

Whatever it was, it was Creepy with a capital C, but more importantly, it was probably a ghost.

Yay for Peter.

Unfortunately, that raised three questions: what was the ghost doing there, how could Peter get evidence, and if Peter had pissed him off, who could protect Peter from said ghost?

Peter didn't have an answer for any of those questions, so he went out on his run again to see the ghost and ponder his dilemma. Just like the last few nights, the ghost appeared. Unlike the last few nights, he showed up clearly three times, and Peter got a _good look_ – like, a 'better than he wanted' look of the ghost's face – and _wow_ , he was practically a kid. Younger than Peter, at any rate. And smirking like Peter, too, like how Peter smirked when he was about to pull off an epic prank flawlessly.

Which totally didn't make Peter nervous, not at all, he just…maybe almost twisted his ankle, and twisting could lead to spraining, so Peter really oughta get back to the house now, okay thanks bye.

The whole thing seemed sillier in the sunlight, with an army of ankle-biters around him and their somewhat smaller army of ankle-biter-wranglers doing their thing. And it probably was, but just in case he was about to piss off a ghost, he left a note for his dad, telling him that he was out on a nightly jog and if Erik didn't see Peter by, like, 2, then something might've gotten him. He then crumpled up that note, tried to write it again in several slightly less dreadful iterations, and eventually settled on telling his dad.

Which came out like, "Hey, I'm going for a jog; if I vanish sometimes between now and 2, I've been seeing a ghost and I might've pissed it off, even thought I've done literally nothing but exist on the grounds. Great? Love you, bye!"

Peter then zipped off on his nightly run and didn't get more than halfway around the grounds before he saw the ghost again. Except this time, when he slowed down, the ghost was thill there, standing and watching and being all glowy – and mildly menacing – but mostly smirking like he was about to drop shaving cream all over the Prof's chair and get away with it.

"Hey, man," Peter greeted, trying to be casual despite the _OMGActualGhost_ thought continually running through his head. "What's your name?"

The kid smirked wider, opened his mouth, and…screeched. Like a nightmare creature. _Not at All_ like a ghost. Actually, if Peter could manage to think straight for a second, he screeched like one of those Banshees from Irish folklore that he knew about because Wendy took a class on mythology during her second semester at college, because she needed an elective and that piqued her interest, so Peter learned about all kinds of stuff, most of which told him that humans had _messed up_ imaginations.

Kinda like Peter's messed up imagination. Though he didn't imagine sliding back several feet after getting screeched at. There were actual marks in the grass to prove it. And hey, if Peter got pushed back several feet by a ghost that screamed like a harbinger of death, then the thing must've been there, which meant that Peter Really Ought to Not Be There.

So he wasn't. He hoofed his sorry ass all the way back to the house and almost ran _smack_ into Erik, who was walking with Charles, and both of them looked way disappointed in Peter. Not that Peter cared at the moment, because he'd either just escaped his fate or sealed it, but either way, he'd be not-sleeping tonight with all the lights _on_.

Oh, hey, he was shaking. That was…fun?

"Peter, where were you?" Erik asked with a tired, resigned tone.

"Funny thing," Peter started, and he really shouldn't have started with that. That was how he started most of his 'hide me from the cops' speeches to his mom, and similar speeches to his dad. "I was out for my nightly jog around the grounds, cause it's October, and if there's any month you're gonna see ghosts, it's October. So there I was, running around, and I ran into this guy. Well, I didn't _run into_ him, but I don't think I could have if I wanted to, cause he's a ghost and he screamed at me, and-"

"You honestly expect me to believe there's a ghost out there?" Erik jerked his thumb toward the still-open front doors, and Peter nodded vigorously. "What did you hide in my room this time?"

"I'm not making this up," Peter insisted. "I've been jogging all month, I've kept seeing this ghost guy, and I didn't tell anyone because I'd sound crazy or like I was trying to pull something, except I haven't figured out how to get evidence, and it might not matter, cause he actually stuck around when I slowed down-"

"And this is what's really going on?" Charles cut in, leveling a stare at Peter. "There's a ghost on my grounds and it chose tonight to let you see it properly?"

"I don't know, man!" Peter shouted, mildly frantic, because this was not going well and if he needed a security detail, he really needed them to believe why he needed it. "I swear, there's _someone_ out there! He's got curly red hair and he smirks like I do when I'm about to pull a wicked prank, and he screeches like a freaking Irish Banshee, which I only know because Wendy took a mythology elective in class and I was her study buddy!"

Charles and Erik both went pale and looked at each other with something similar to horrified shock in their eyes. They didn't say anything for a long moment, and Peter shifted from foot to foot, even less comfortable out of their stares than he was under them.

"Short, curly red hair?" Charles pressed. "Freckles, had his arms crossed? And you're _sure_ he screeched like a Banshee?"

"Yeah, man," Peter answered, grateful that someone believed him.

The Professor and his dad stared at each other, telepathically chatting, for way longer than Peter actually wanted to be standing there, staring at his shoes. When they looked back to him, Peter slumped in relief, because they weren't looking at him like he was about to pull the prank of the month.

He was way, way less relieved when Erik demanded that Peter take him to the spot, but if that was what he needed to go to get some credibility around here, then sure.

Th grass marks were still there. The ghost wasn't. There was, however, a shed just behind Peter – kinda old and creaky and totally dilapidated, that Peter had legit never noticed before because there were vines growing all over the sides of it – but the important thing was that it had a window, and the window was shattered. Erik spent a _long_ time staring at that shattered window, before nodding to Peter – who, by the way, had been scanning the area around them, just in case the Banshee ghost dude came back – and Peter took him back to the mansion.

Erik held the glass up to Charles. Charles kinda looked like he wanted to cry.

Peter didn't ask. He also didn't see the ghost again, but that was totally fine with him, because between _OMGActualGhost_ and the ghost actually being able to Do Things To Him and the Prof making what looked like a monumental effort not to bust into tears, he'd had enough of ghosts for a whole year and maybe then some.


	3. Wednesday: Cryptid (The Stranger in the Woods)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a man in the woods, and Nina knows it's a man, because she can't make him trust her or come to her.

Nina was very sure there was a man in the woods behind Professor Xavier's school. She'd only seen him a couple times, but he'd been covered in hair and hadn't responded to her gentle coaxings like all the other animals did, so he had to be a person. It was the only thing that made sense.

Now, she didn't tell anyone about the man because he was obviously shy, and Nina knew that when she wanted to see shy animals, she needed to wait until they came to her. It had worked every other time before, and even though the man wasn't an animal, Nina found that much of what she learned about animals could also be applied to people. Besides, Nina guessed that even though the man was shy, he was still not really supposed to be there, and Papa was very protective over her. Papa would probably find the man and try to chase him off, and Nina would feel bad if that happened.

So she held her tongue and waved to the man every time she saw him – which looked normal to everyone else, since she could talk to animals, and people simply assumed she was waving to one of her forest friends – even though he never waved back, or even looked over at her.

That was why when Wendy and Lorna, Nina's half-sisters – though she didn't know why they were called "half-sisters;" they were her sisters and they loved her as much as she loved them – started talking about seeing a hairy man in the woods, she piped up.

"I saw him, too," she said over breakfast. Wendy and Lorna both looked at each other. "He comes by sometimes when it gets close to dark."

"So all three of us have seen him?" Lorna asked. "And Peter, who's been running laps around the building at night, hasn't?"

"Then I suppose we ought to go out and look for him," Wendy determined.

"You seriously think that's a good idea?" Lorna deadpanned. "Let's go out and find this cryptid that no-one knows anything about other than he's tall, looks like a man, and has really big feet. _What_ could go wrong?"

Lorna was very…Nina knew the world, but it escaped her now. Cynical! That was it! And Mama said that when she first met Papa, he was the same way. Papa wasn't cynical anymore, at least not around Nina, so maybe if Lorna just stuck around a bit longer and Nina gave her a couple extra hugs a day, she'd get happier.

"I want to go meet him," Nina added.

"Then it's settled," Wendy replied as Lorna groaned loudly.

It was hours later, as the sun began to set, that the trio set off toward the woods. Lorna and Wendy had a short discussion about whether or not they should go into the woods themselves or just stay outside, and Nina said they should stay out, because nobody liked it when someone invaded their home. Lorna was happy with that answer. They walked along the treeline, stopping and waiting at spots where one or more of them had seen the man. Nina asked her bird friends to keep an eye out for the man and let her know where he was.

When they came back a little while later and told her they saw two of them, and that one of them was much closer than the other, Nina told Wendy and Lorna and they all set off for that spot. Upon reaching it, they stared into the woods while the leaves crunched and a few branches crackled.

"There's definitely something in there," Wendy muttered.

Lorna cupped her hand like she was going to use her powers, but Wendy gently held her back.

"I have this feeling that we're being messed with."

"By Peter?"

"It's not Peter," Nina asserted.

She didn't know how she knew so concretely. She only knew that Peter had been helping with a class or out on an X-Men mission several of the times she saw the hairy man in the woods. Though, the birds said that there were two hairy men in the woods, so maybe the other one _was_ Peter, or maybe the one they were watching was Peter and the other wasn't.

"There!" Lorna whisper-shouted, pointing to a shadow in the woods to the far right of where the birds said the first man was.

It stepped forward, stomping around much louder than ever before. It saw them and stopped. Wendy guided her sisters behind her, and Nina noticed her hands cupping like Lorna's had, red sparking between her fingertips. Nina put a gentle hand on Wendy's side, wordlessly asking Wendy not to hurt the man. After all, the man had never hurt Nina, and as far as she could tell from her animal friends, it hadn't hurt any of them, either.

Of course, when it charged, waving its arms around, she was much less not okay with the idea of Wendy using her powers on it.

Nina herself decided that it might be better if she helped, too. In Poland, she hadn't known what she was doing when she made those birds attack the scary people who tried to take her father away. Now, though, she'd learned a little more about using her powers for defense instead of making friends, so she looked at the trees and riled up all the birds in them, and the birds began to divebomb the man. The blue jays, in particular, seemed very happy to finally get to fly at something Nina didn't like; they did get rather attached to her.

When the man tripped and went down face first, Wendy put a hand on Nina's shoulder and mentally spoke. _"You can send the birds back now, it's just Peter."_

So Nina did, while Lorna muttered things in Papa's native language that Nina suspected she wasn't supposed to know. Wendy sighed shortly while Peter started to chuckle when he sat up. The blue jays asked Nina if they could go divebomb the other hairy man, and she told them no, because he hadn't tried to hurt them…yet.

" _Peter_!" Wendy snapped sharply.

Peter only laughed and slipped off his hat as he emerged from the trees. He looked a lot like the man Nina had seen wandering about in there, but he was a little shorter, and his homemade costume didn't quite match the other man's fur color.

"Oh, man, I _totally_ had you!" he exclaimed, still laughing.

Lorna marched over and punched him in the arm. "Not funny, Peter," she half-growled. "Seriously."

"What _isn't_ funny about making you think Bigfoot's in the woods coming after you?" he replied.

"The part where I almost dropped a tree on you," Wendy deadpanned. "Or maybe the part where Nina's friends almost pecked your eyes out."

"The jays don't like going for people's eyes," Nina corrected. "I don't know why; they just don't."

"Regardless," Lorna cut in, "that was _such_ a _stupid plan_! Do you _know us_?! Seriously, I could've-"

"You wouldn't have," Peter replied reassuringly. "I know you; you spend just a little too much time with Nina, and I would've told you when I thought I was in danger."

"Stupid prank," Wendy chided anyway. "Don't do it again. And no-one tells Dad, capiche?"

"Okay, okay," Peter answered, hands held up in surrender.

"Fine, but only because it would worry him," Lorna agreed begrudgingly.

"What about the other one?"

Everyone looked at Nina.

"What…what other one?" Wendy asked slowly.

"The other tall, hairy man in the woods."

Nina's siblings all looked between each other and her, and she worried that she might have gotten the man in trouble. Especially after Peter held his hands up, assuring Wendy and Lorna that the 'other man' had nothing to do with him. Nina didn't see Wendy, Lorna, or Peter talking to Professor Xavier or her father, but when she didn't see the man again for a few days, she asked her forest friends, and they said that he was gone. Left after the prank Peter pulled, or maybe because the weather was getting colder. It was okay with her; she figured that he probably migrated like any other animal and he'd be back in the spring.


	4. Thursday: Vampire (Witch for all but Two Nights)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wendy has her costume all lined up - a vampire, not a witch, to Peter's mild dismay - and she has the _perfect_ idea for the photo op they'll be doing later that night.

Wendy teased the last couple strands of hair into place, finishing off her elegant up-do. It looked wonderful, so long as she stayed almost perfectly still.

"I'm gonna need to put a _frick-ton_ of hairspray in to keep this up," she lamented.

"Oh, nonsense!" Jubilee cheerfully chirped across the room.

The girls had decided to aid each other in their costumes. Jubilee was going as a witch, and had bought a lovely knee-length dress at the store…and then completely revamped it so that it had lacy cobwebs and purple highlights, and most important of all – pockets. She had the broom and a bottle of water dyed green and a large hat – which she had also made herself. Her makeup was impeccable, but most impressive of all, in Wendy's opinion, was that Wendy was the third person Jubilee had helped over the course of the latter's dressing up. She'd had both Ororo and Warren in earlier to help them with touching up their costumes and makeup. Ororo, going as Queen Cleopatra, only needed the makeup, but Warren, who'd decided to go as Gandalf the White, had a last minute costume malfunction when one of the seams burst around his wings.

Wendy hadn't been in the room for it, and she was honestly kinda glad.

Wendy herself was going as a vampire. She'd chosen the dress, which was one of her mom's old dresses, actually, which she and Jubilee had tailored together, adding room for an underskirt of maroon red, trimming the sleeves back to 3/4ths and pinning on bell sleeves, also in red. The tall collar was a pin-on as well, so the dress could be easily modified between normal and vampiric. Wendy still hadn't figured out what she was wearing for shoes, though she did know she was disregarding Peter's suggestion of going barefoot. Maybe Jean had some flats she could borrow?

First things first, though, hair.

"Watch this," Jubilee said after crossing her room to stand beside Wendy.

She gently but deftly plucked the hairspray from Wendy's hands, and spritzed the back of the up-do, near the nape of Wendy's neck, and the front of it, right where all her hair was tied up. Wendy tilted her head side to side, slowly at first, and then more quickly. The hair bounced, but remained firmly in place.

"You are a magic worker, Jubilee," Wendy announced, picking up a dark lipstick to finish off the look.

"Nah, I'm just really practiced. So, we ready to crash this par-tay?"

"We're hardly crashing it; it is for us, after all," Wendy pointed out.

On Monday, the younger kids had their day of costumes. Many of the older kids had been too busy helping the younger ones choose and prep their costumes, that they hadn't gotten to wear their own. The Thursday night party was for them, held later in the night, their chance to show off and get feedback on their costumes, before the huge bonfire on Halloween itself.

"There's gonna be pictures, too. Hey, I heard that there's a black cat stuffed animal getting passed around for the pics; you want me to see if we can't borrow that?" Jubilee suggested.

Wendy smiled, popping her lips after setting the lipstick back down. "Oh, I have my own ideas about that…"

* * *

Despite the fact that Nina technically counted as one of the younger kids, and the fact that it really was past her bedtime, she was at the party anyway. Wendy, of course, knew she would be. Peter and Lorna were doing an excellent job of keeping Charles, Raven, and most important of all, Erik, away from Nina so they wouldn't see her and send her off to bed. It was quite the challenge, given that Nina's costume was – unsurprisingly – Snow White. It fit her well, both in appearance and the whole 'talking to animals' thing, but a bright yellow skirt was awfully difficult to conceal. That the siblings managed to do it was impressive. Wendy did help several times by discreetly signaling to Peter and Lorna.

Though, Peter and another student – Michael, she believed, a boy who could compress his skeleton and slip though extraordinarily small cracks – were both dressed as Luke Skywalker, so she'd accidentally signaled him instead of Peter, and so she switched over to slight telepathic suggestions afterward, risking getting caught by Charles to not make that embarrassing mistake again.

At 10:30, it was time for photos before the party wound down. The photos were carried out on the front walk, where the students who wanted to could have the house as a backdrop. It would work wonderfully for Wendy's costume, given that the mansion did look very castle-like. Ororo even shot her a wink to warn her about a mood-lighting lightning bolt, which Wendy had to admit was a thrilling idea.

But the really exciting part of her photo op was the bat.

Because Nina could speak with animals, she could convince one of her bat friends – Cyryl – to pose with Wendy. It couldn't be helped that Nina was very visible to her father then, but he didn't seem to mind on this one special occasion. Wendy got three photos: one on her own, one with Cyryl flying above her, and the last with Cyryl perched on her finger and Ororo's crack of lightning illuminating the mansion behind her. The group of students gasped in surprise, then clapped and cheered, and Ororo blushed slightly at the praise.

Wendy strode back over to Nina and handled Cyryl over. Nina giggled as the small bat switched perches, and began to chat with him before she would have to send him on his way and go off to bed herself.

"Dude, that is actually the _coolest_ shot _ever_!" Peter exclaimed as he slung an arm around Wendy's shoulder.

"That was pretty epic," Scott agreed.

"Ro, that was _amazing_!" Jubilee squealed. "I so wish I'd thought to ask when I did my pic."

"Perhaps next year," Ororo replied. "But thank you."

A few more photos later – including one with both Warren and Kurt, since Kurt had gone as Bilbo, even though neither had planned it – the students headed back inside for the last few minutes of the party before everyone was sent back off to bed.

"So…" Wendy turned when she heard her father addressing her. "I assume it was a joint effort to keep Nina hidden?"

"Yes," she answered. "Someone should've warned you what happens when the Lehnsherr kids set their minds to something."

Erik looked taken aback – in a good way, of course – at Wendy's identification, her willing association with his legacy. But then, Lorna wasn't really a Maximoff, Nina was Wendy's sister as much as Peter was her brother, and the main thing tying them together was Erik Lehnsherr. After his initial shock, he smiled warmly, a bit tearfully, and Wendy hugged her dad, and he hugged her back just as tightly.

Yeah, it was a good Halloween. Just as long as Peter didn't do something incredibly stupid before the 31st, it'd probably be a great one.


	5. Friday: Skeleton (The Most Beloved Unwanted Visitor)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been working ALL DAY, and this turned out WAY LONGER than I thought, so I'm calling it submitted on Friday and that's that.  
> No, I am not accepting criticism of any kind.

It had to be Peter's idea. It didn't have his handwriting, and it wasn't in Wendy's room, but an idea _that_ nuts, _that_ childish, it could only have been Peter.

The skeleton, seated in a chair in Kurt's room, had a note taped to its head. The note read, "This is Bob. Whoever has Bob at midnight loses the game." That was it. No signature, no rules, no nothing. If Kurt – or Wendy – really wanted to, they could just put 'Bob' on the hallway and leave it there. Of course, something told Wendy that his hallway seat wasn't likely to be occupied for long.

"What should we do?" Kurt asked.

Wendy crossed her arms and smirked. "I say we give Peter a taste of his own medicine."

* * *

The skeleton was reclining on Peter's bed, and wearing his _shoes_ , no less! The note, yellow college lined paper, was taped to the side of 'Bob's head, leaving his blank gaze unhindered, so it could stare at Peter's Rush poster.

It had Wendy written all over it. Actually, it had 'passive-aggressive' Wendy written all over it, which was strange, since it wasn't Peter's idea. Obviously, she thought it was, and to an extent, Peter wished it had been, but it wasn't. He wondered if she'd found it in her room. If she had, kudos to whoever was crazy enough to break into her room; not only was it not exactly easy to do, but they could be incurring the wrath of the Lehnsherr line, and Peter was good at talking people down, but not _that_ good.

But back to the problem at hand. Bob needed to be out of his room and in someone else's. He considered putting Bob in Scott's room, since Scott was his go-to when Peter wanted to screw with someone. Then again…he hadn't messed with Warren for a while, and Warren wasn't in his room. He was out flying.

Peter smirked, picked Bob up bridal style – no need to worry about giving a dead guy whiplash, after all – and sped off to Warren's room.

* * *

Warren was gonna…well, not _kill_ Peter; that'd be excessive. He was pissed, but not that pissed.

Actually, if Warren was being honest, it felt…kinda nice to be included. Even if it was a _dumb_ Halloween prank, it was still inclusive, and Warren was grateful for it. After years of being rejected in some form or another, he was still getting used to the whole team idea, and Maximoff – the annoying, mouthy one, anyway – had taken it upon himself to make sure Warren was included in every prank war or silly game or occasional crazy, rebellious trip.

So with the skeleton staring back at him, wearing one of his leather jackets – which was just a bit more annoying than the skeleton's presence itself, but it was wearing Peter's shoes, so Warren could deal – he decided to join in instead of dropping the thing off the roof.

But who to target? Maybe…Storm. Ororo would probably take the joke well.

Warren did make sure no-one saw him as he hauled the skeleton across the way. His dignity could take being involved in the game, but not the actual image of him carrying the skeleton around.

* * *

Ororo chuckled, once she got over her initial freak-out moment of someone being in her room. Bob the skeleton was staring back at her, with Warren's jacket and Peter's shoes and a blocky-print note that warned her about losing if she had him in her possession come the Witching Hour.

She strolled around her room, contemplating who to hand him off to next and what she would put on him, since it seemed that everyone who'd had him – or at least the last two, anyway – had contributed to ensuring he didn't get cold. Or run around- well, it didn't matter, there were technically naked skeletons everywhere. Strictly speaking, any skeleton was naked, and on second though, she'd really rather not be thinking about it.

She spotted one of the scarves she'd gotten on the X-Men's last mall raid – Scott could call it whatever he wanted, with the inclusion of Ororo and Peter, the unexpected shopping chaos duo, it was a _raid_ , not a trip – and decided that it would be a fine addition to their bony friend.

She cringed at her horrible pun and tied the scarf around Bob's neck, transferring the note to it so he didn't look quite as dumb. Now, who should he visit next?

Jean probably hadn't had him yet.

* * *

Jean burst into laughter at the sight of the skeleton brushing its hair at her vanity. She really couldn't help it; it was a hysterical sight. It was definitely Ororo's brand of humor.

The note told her what she needed to know about the game going on, and the clothing articles let her know who he'd already been through. It might've been started as a competitive thing, but Jean figured that with the inclusion of the clothing, it became more like a passport-stamping type affair.

Which meant that after she added one of the wrap-skirts Jubilee had somehow persuaded her to buy during their last mall trip, she had to pick someone else for him to visit. He was wearing Peter's shoes – and Jean was mildly surprised that Peter could part with his beloved sneakers – and Warren's jacket – which she presumed he added after seeing Peter's generous donation – and Ororo's scarf, to which the note was pinned. Bob's fashion style was a disaster, but it made it easy to track who'd already gotten him and thus who really shouldn't get him again.

She could give him to Jubilee, but she looked at Bob's hands while freeing her hairbrush and decided that Kurt's mittens would look so cute on him.

* * *

"Now what?" Kurt asked, shifting from foot to foot.

Wendy stood beside him, still in her apron from when he'd called her up from the kitchen to help him with his dilemma. Her hands were on her hips, face screwed into a contemplative frown with her lower lip jutted out. She stared at Bob, sporting several more clothing items than when she'd seen him last.

"Looks like he's been accepted," she mused. "In this case, I'd say pick something to put on him and send him off to someone else."

"Like what?" he asked. "He already has a jacket, and my jacket is the most distin- Discin…"

"Dinstintive," Wendy helped. "Distinctive!" She sighed deeply. "Oh, geez…"

Kurt's eyes darted around his room, trying to think of something to adorn Bob with.

"Oh! What about my mittens?" Kurt suggested.

"Yeah, that'll work," Wendy agreed. "Who are you gonna give him to?"

"He doesn't look like he's been to visit Scott."

* * *

As it turned out, Bob technically had been to visit Scott. He'd been in Scott's room for the note-writing, so Scott was rather surprised to see him back fully dressed.

"So, I see you brought at least one tradition with you," Alex remarked as he strolled by his little brother's room.

"Whoa! Who's what?" Matt asked.

Matt was their _other_ little brother, courtesy of William Stryker's mutant cloning solider program. Matt was only 12, and one day, Scott would be able to be grateful for his new baby brother without having his stomach twist in fury over what was done to him. Today, the anger wasn't as strong, because he couldn't be angry at anyone when he saw Matt's eyes light up the way they did.

"This is Bob," Scott introduced. "It was Alex's idea first."

"When he says that, he means it was my idea, like, twenty years ago," Alex clarified, reaching over to ruffle Scott's hair and missing because Scott ducked. "Scott's the one who brought him to the Mansion."

"The ideas is whoever's got him when Halloween comes loses," Scott added. "They had to do the other's laundry for a week."

"Or the dishes for a week."

"Cool," Matt said. "Why's he all dressed up?"

"No idea," Scott replied. "It's not on the note."

"Someone probably put someone else's clothes on Bob to screw with them and it's kinda stuck. So…" Alex crouched down to get on Matt's height level. "What'cha wanna put on him?"

"Hey, if we're stealing out of someone's closet, let's take it out of yours," Scott protested.

Matt walked over to Scott's closet anyway, looked at it for a long moment, and then decided on the blue button-down that Alex passed to Scott when Scott got inducted as an X-Man. The two older Summers brothers shared a look and smiled.

"That's perfect," Alex said. "Let's get it on him and show Jubilee what a fashion disaster he is."

* * *

Bob, as his name was, had been going around the rumor mill all day, and Jubilee was a little surprised that it took so long for him to get to her.

He was…disastrously dressed, but on the other hand, it was really neat. Everyone had apparently pitched in to dress him up, and Bob now sat, leaning against her bed, with a piece of clothing from every X-Man except her and Wendy.

She took a bit longer than she'd admit to settle on what she wanted to put on him, since real estate was now at a premium. She frowned and fretted, and finally settled on her bangle bracelet set. She slipped it on his arm, stepped back to look again, and smiled.

"Pure chaos," she remarked. "Bro, you look killer. Let's get you to Wendy for the finishing touches."

* * *

She really should've expected him to come to her. She hadn't put anything on him, and since that was how whoever had him tracked who to give him to next, it only made sense for him to show up in her room. He now had the 'Summers shirt' and Jubilee's bracelets, which left Wendy at a bit of a loss. What could she add to him that would be visible? She didn't want to gift him one of her necklaces, for fear of them getting snatched or snapped or something.

She walked around him, where he was sitting on her couch, thinking deeply. She caught her reflection in the mirror, then saw her X-Man headpiece resting on it. Lorna had one that matched as well, in green where Wendy's was in red, a leftover relic form Lorna's time as the leader of Stryker's cloned mutant soldiers.

Speaking of, at least she had a new target.

"What is _that thing_?" Lorna asked, suddenly appearing at her doorway. "Oh, wait, is that the skeleton?"

"Yeah," Wendy answered.

She took her headpiece and taped it to Bob's head while Lorna failed to suppress her snorting. She snickered and chuckled and eventually burst out laughing when one side listed heavily to the left and Wendy had to add more tape to keep it secure.

"Hey, since I'm already here, can I just add my thing?" Lorna asked.

"Technically, the game is to give him to someone, but sure, why not?" Wendy replied.

"Well, here, hand him to me, and there we go," Lorna stated authoritatively.

Wendy shrugged, picked the skeleton up, and handed him to Lorna. Now it was Wendy's turn to snort as Lorna, who didn't realize what kind of a lanky mess Bob was to handle, got buried and managed to schlep him on Wendy's bed. She then took off her necklace and draped it around his neck. The silver heart – a gift from Peter – contrasted nicely with Ororo's blue scarf. It even contrasted nicely with the now-worn note, still pinned to the scarf.

"Now what?" Lorna asked.

Wendy looked at Bob. Stared at him. And came up with the second dumbest idea she'd ever had.

"There's one more article that he doesn't have."

* * *

Hank really couldn't explain the presence of the skeleton, dressed in hideously clashing styles, sitting at his desk in the lab. Next to him, Raven snorted.

"So that's what the kids have been up to," she remarked.

"Uh-huh," he replied, circling it like it was some kind of predator. He picked at the note, which threatened the 'loss of the game' in roughly two hours. "Why's he here, though?"

"Because someone figured that you were fair game. You gonna put something on him?" Raven asked.

He frowned, thought about it, then picked up a spare pair of glasses and taped it to Bob's face, to Raven's increasing chuckles. It was nice to hear her laugh. It was, in Hank's rather biased opinion, always nice to hear Raven, but to hear her laugh was a special delight.

"He looks-"

"Like a mess," he finished for her. "Don't sugarcoat it, that's what he looks like. He makes _my_ fashion style look good."

"Your style isn't _bad_ ," she remarked.

"Not as great as yours," he retorted.

"No-one's style is as great as mine."

Of course she'd come back with that.

"So, where's he going next? I could probably sneak him into Erik's room, if we wanted," Raven suggested.

But Hank had a better idea. Hank had a terribly great idea that he was very much looking forward to pulling off, and he grinned ear to ear in anticipation of it, and for once, didn't worry about how frightening he might look.

* * *

Charles had heard about Bob the skeleton being passed around as a Halloween prank. Personally, he found it very endearing, how the X-Men more or less adopted him. Of course, when he heard that Bob's slap-dash fashion style was nothing short of a disaster, he hadn't quite expected what he was currently faced with.

Bob was sitting in one of Charles's spare wheelchairs, parked behind his desk, and Charles could identify one of Warren's jackets, the Summers shirt, Hank's glasses – wasn't that surprising; he wondered who'd been brave enough to involve the good doctor – and Wendy's X-Man suit's headpiece. That was just what he could name off the top of his head.

The note pinned to Bob's borrowed scarf – Jubilee's? No, she'd added her bracelets – informed Charles that he was now the loser of 'the game,' since it was exactly 12:03. He smiled regardless, leaning back in his chair and thinking about the team, the family he'd helped build at the Mansion.

_"Charles?"_ Moira asked, thoughts reaching out across the Mansion. _"Are you coming to bed?"_

_Yes, in a moment,_ he sent back. Then he smirked. _Moira, love, you wouldn't mind helping me with a quick favor, would you?_

_"It's midnight already, but why not? What are we doing?"_

The smirk still didn't leave, even as he answered, _I've decided to take on an office assistant, though I might need some help getting his borrowed items back to their owners._


	6. Saturday: Celebrate (Frui Diem)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erik can't find his children, which is... They're probably fine, it _is_ Halloween, anyway, they're probably out trick-or-treating still. Without telling him how long they'd be gone, even though they were supposed to be back a while ago.
> 
> Charles will know where his children are, surely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, this is a whole day late. Yes, I am sorry. I just didn't have the mental power to finish it when I got home late on Halloween night, and I didn't want to turn out something cheap just to say I posted. I hope y'all enjoy this, and thank you for reading!

It was Halloween night. More likely than not, the reason Erik couldn't find any of his kids was because they were out doing something for Halloween, like trick-or-treating or haunted houses. It was probably normal, nothing to worry about, everything was _fine_. The kids were _fine_.

Erik really wasn't.

After combing the whole Mansion twice and not finding them – but seeing increasingly fewer students lingering about – he broke down and went to find Charles. Charles could find Wendy, and Wendy would know where her siblings were. So he calmly walked to Charles's office, and he did _not_ run.

That was the story he was sticking to, thank you very much, Raven.

"Hello, Erik," Charles greeted when Erik entered, not looking up as he finished signing whatever he had on his desk.

Erik opened his mouth to ask, but out of the corner of his eye, he caught someone else sitting in the office. He looked over and saw…it was a skeleton. A life-size skeleton wearing one of Charles's old suit jackets and sitting in one of Charles's old wheelchairs. Erik blinked at the completely unexpected sight, then pointed at the skeleton when he looked back to Charles, his not-panic temporarily forgotten.

"What is that?"

Charles looked up at Erik, then to the skeleton. "Oh. That is Bob. He's my new office assistant."

"Your…"

"He watches my study while I'm out."

Charles looked perfectly serious, except for the telltale, undisguisable twinkle of mischief in his eyes. He was practically daring Erik to question it again, and Erik wasn't sure he wanted to know what response Charles had prepared. Instead, he thought about where Charles could've gotten the skeleton and realized that Charles must've been the last person to possess 'Bob' in the game the kids were playing yesterday.

"So, which one of them was crazy enough to give him to you?" Erik asked with a smirk.

Charles smiled. "I do believe it was Hank and Raven. He had Hank's glasses, and Hank's face was just slightly too straight when I asked him how Bob could possibly have gotten ahold of those. Besides, Raven wasn't there at all, because she was never good at not laughing when I called her out on her jokes."

"And you decided to keep him?"

"Well, where else was he going to go?" Charles countered. "This school is a haven for everyone, dispossessed skeletons included."

Erik couldn't help the bark of laughter at that answer. Even Charles chuckled, enable to keep his straight face.

"What can I help you with, my friend?" Charles asked, and Erik felt a swell of warm gratefulness for Charles's seemingly unending forgiveness.

Erik remembered why he was there and frowned again. "I can't find my children."

His children. His four blessings that he'd done nothing to deserve and loved more dearly than his own life. His beautiful daughters, his wonderful son. _His_ children. It still gave him a jolt to think of them.

"Did you check the bonfire?" Charles asked.

"They- The what?"

"The Halloween bonfire. It's on the edge of the back lawn. Honestly, I don't know how you've missed it; it's almost concerningly big."

Charles rolled over toward the window and Erik followed him. There it was, large and bright off in the distance, with dozens of shadows standing or dancing around it. He couldn't pick out any shadows that he thought absolutely belonged to his kids, but he had no doubt now that was where they were.

"Oh," Erik said. Charles chuckled again. "I was a bit focused on checking all the corners of the house; I wouldn't put it past them to play a game of hide and seek that I wasn't in on, Charles," he defended.

"I am sure that Wendy, at least, would tell you," Charles corrected.

Erik gave a small smile. Wendy, who had seen his thoughts – because, as Charles liked to inform him rather often, he projected loudly, and Wendy could see what her family was thinking or feeling much easier than anyone else – would've given him at least a little advance warning if his kids decided to play that sort of game. And really, Peter was good at knowing what set Erik off, and he'd gone out of his way to let Erik know where he was going if he was going to vanish for a little.

"I've just finished up the last of my grading, so if you wouldn't mind accompanying me?" Charles suggested.

"I'd be delighted," Erik replied.

The trip across the lawn was, thankfully, not too difficult…mostly because Erik simply decided to levitate Charles's chair across the grass. As they approached, the music blaring from a stereo rested on the lawn outside the main ring of students became clearer, and they could pick out different voices and occasionally the exact words that were said. The trees in the forest beyond were coasted in fake spider webs, with large, fuzzy spiders resting in their branches. Some of the trees had fluorescent green lanterns hanging from chains wrapped around other branches, and deeper into the woods, they could see fog machines and white picket fences. Jean and Scott were standing near them, and a few students darted in and out of the woods with varying degrees of trepidation and excitement. Some kind of haunted maze, no doubt.

Ororo and Kurt seemed to be in charge of watching the children roast their marshmallows, while Moira and Hank were helping them assemble the s'mores and serving hot chocolate and apple cider. He could see several games set up on the outskirts of the bonfire's illumination, which Alex and Jubilee were running. The costumes were abundant, and Erik had to admit that he failed to recognize many faces under paint and masks.

Peter and Wendy were running the music – no surprise there – and Lorna hovered nearby. Nina was with another group of kids about to enter the haunted forest, with several of her bat friends circling overhead. Erik thought he could see Moira's son, Kevin MacTaggart, running beside Nina. They'd become fast friends. Magda was happy that Nina had friends besides the animals, and Erik was happy that if Nina had to pick anyone to be friends with, it would be Charles's stepson.

"Finally decided to stop being a stick in the mud?" Raven asked, coming up behind him, dressed like Robin Hood, or one of Hood's merry men. Erik raised an eyebrow, but said nothing about it.

"Yes, and thank you for informing me where my children were when I was looking for them," he replied just as drily.

"You're so welcome."

"What happened to the corpse bride costume?" Charles asked.

Raven's mouth twisted into a frown. "It got burned." She offered nothing else, and neither Charles nor Erik pressed.

The trio lapsed into silence, watching their legacy enjoy the holiday. Erik didn't need telepathy to know that the other two were content, and decided that he could let go of the worries of the world, let go of the tactical planning, and just be.


End file.
